Toy Brick Structure

ABSTRACT

The present invention discloses a toy brick structure, which comprises a box-shaped portion with a plurality of first holding elements formed thereon. The first holding element is composed of four elastic fins. The bottom of box-shaped portion is a hollow, open space with second holding element and third holding element formed therein. The second holding element is composed of four protruding pins, wherein the number and position of said second holding element correspond to the first holding element formed on the box-shaped portion. The third holding element is composed of two holding pins, wherein the third holding element is disposed between two second holding means.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is generally related to a structure of toy bricks. More particularly, the present invention is related to the structure of toy bricks which can be combined together with the angle of forty-five or ninety degrees. A variety of appearances of the combined toy bricks can be provided by the variety of combinative modes.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART

In general, there is a hollow base formed on a toy brick. The side walls around the toy brick define the hollow base of the toy brick with an open end. There is a certain superstructure formed on the base of the toy brick, and the combinative modes of the toy brick is determined by the configuration of the superstructure. When combining, the base of a toy brick is directly connected to the combination components set on the surfaces of other pieces of toy bricks, and the base of the toy brick is held by the combination components of other pieces of toy bricks and fixed upon the frictional forces between them. In general, the modification or variation of the design of toy bricks elaborated by the toy brick designers is emphasized on the holding means. Without any holding means, the variation of combinative modes between the toy bricks is limited. Further, the spaces inside the hollow base of the toy brick pieces can also be utilized to add certain holding element corresponding to the holding element on their surfaces to get further combinative modes. As illustrated by the FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 of the U.S. Pat. No. 6,554,676, an upper holding element and a bottom holding element of the toy brick are disclosed. The several combinative modes of the toy bricks utilizing the upper and bottom holding element are also showed in the FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 of the patent.

The combinative modes of the conventional toy bricks are generally limited to the alignment of the four orthogonal directions by their design of holding means, so the variation of the combinative modes is low. Consequently, several toy bricks which can be combined together beyond the angle of ninety degree are developed by the industry, such as the structure of toy bricks disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 3,867,784. Their toy bricks can be combined together based on the alignment of the eight directions separated by the angle of forty-five degree, and the holding elements formed on the superstructure of the toy bricks are arranged with symmetrically crossing patterns. Two of the toy brick pieces can be combined together and fixed in eight relative directions which are held between the fins of one toy brick piece and the side walls the bottom of another toy brick piece. Although the novel design of the patented toy bricks provide the combination in eight directions, they did not own any holding element under the bottom of the toy bricks. The combinative modes of the toy bricks are thus limited by only the joint of the bottom walls and the holding element on the superstructure of the toy bricks. Therefore, the present invention provides an improved toy brick structure including novel design of holding element on the bottom of the toy brick for dissolving the problems existed in the prior arts.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a toy brick structure which can be combined together with other identical ones by the angle of forty-five or ninety degrees, while the conventional toy bricks are generally able to be combined together by only the angle of ninety degree. The special holding elements formed on the bottom of the toy bricks of the present invention allow more combinative modes of the toy bricks of the present invention than the prior arts.

The toy brick structure of the present invention includes a box-shaped portion with a plurality of first holding elements formed thereon. The first holding element is composed of four elastic fins arranged symmetrically with crossing pairs. The bottom of the box-shaped portion includes a hollow open space, and the second holding element and third holding element are formed therein. The second holding element is composed of four protruding pins aligned in the four directions, wherein the number and position of the four protruding pins are corresponding to the first holding element formed on the box-shaped portion. The third holding element is composed of two holding pins and is disposed between every two second holding means. In the combination, the first holding element of the superstructure of the toy brick of the present invention are held by the second holding means, third holding means, and side walls of another identical one for fixing.

Other combination elements such as slots and tenon joints may be set on the side walls of the toy brick structures, hence lateral combinative modes among the plurality of toy bricks are provided.

Combination elements such as slots may be set on the upper walls of the toy brick structures for insertion, and further combinative modes are provided.

In a first aspect of the present invention, a toy brick structure is provided which a plurality of the toy brick pieces can be combined together with the angle of forty-five or ninety degrees;

In another aspect of the present invention, improved holding elements of the toy bricks are provided, therefore a greater degree of freedom for combinative modes among the toy bricks than the prior art is provided;

By referring the following description and illustration of the embodiments of the present invention and the accompanying figures, the advantages and the spirit of the present invention can be better understood.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a pictorial view of the upper portion of the toy brick according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a pictorial view of the bottom portion of the toy brick according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 a is a top view of the toy brick according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 b is a bottom view of the toy brick according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 a is a top sectional view of the combination of two toy bricks with the angle of ninety degree according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 b is a top sectional view of the combination of two toy bricks with the angle of ninety degree according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 c is a top sectional view of the combination of two toy bricks with the angle of ninety degree according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 d is a top sectional view of the combination of two toy bricks with the angle of ninety degree according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 a is a top sectional view of the combination of two toy bricks with the angle of forty-five degree according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 b is a top sectional view of the combination of two toy bricks with the angle of forty-five degree according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 c is a top sectional view of the combination of two toy bricks with the angle of forty-five degree according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 d is a top sectional view of the combination of two toy bricks with the angle of forty-five degree according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 a is a top sectional view of the combination of a toy bricks of the present invention with a toy brick of prior art according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 b is a top sectional view of the combination of a toy bricks of the present invention with a toy brick of prior art according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 a is a pictorial view of the lateral combination of two toy bricks via the joint of the tenon joints according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 b is a pictorial view of the lateral combination of two toy bricks via the joint of the tenons and grooves according to the embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 7 c is a pictorial view of the combination of a toy brick and a component via upper slot according to the embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The following description provides the detailed embodiments of the present invention for being thoroughly understood of the embodiments of the present invention. However, it should be apparent to the skills in the art that certain details are not necessary for carrying out the present invention. Further, the jargons or terminologies used in the embodiments of the present invention should be defined by the widest ways.

FIG. 1 is a pictorial view of the upper portion of the toy brick according to the embodiment of the present invention, and it illustrates the configuration of the upper portion and part of the side portion of the toy brick 100. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the toy brick 100 of the present invention includes a box-shaped portion 101 comprising four side walls 103 and an upper wall 105. The upper wall 105 of the toy brick 100 includes a superstructure which is a configuration on the surface for the purpose of combining together the plurality of toy bricks. In the present invention, the configuration on the surface of the toy brick 100 includes a plurality of first holding element 107 for combining together by frictional holding with other toy bricks via their corresponding holding means. FIG. 2 is a pictorial view of the bottom portion of the toy brick 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention, and it shows the configuration of the box-shaped portion 101 and part of the side portion of toy brick of the embodiment of the present invention. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the bottom portion of the box-shaped portion 101 includes a hollow open space with the second holding element 109 and the third holding element 111 formed therein. The second holding element 109 and/or the third holding element 111 are utilized to form various combinative modes between other identical toy bricks via the frictional holding with the corresponding first holding element 107 on the upper walls 105 of the other toy bricks. The detailed structures and combinative modes of the second holding element 109 and the third holding element 111 will be introduced and illustrated in the following embodiments.

FIG. 3 a and FIG. 3 b are the top view and the bottom view of the toy brick according to the embodiment of the present invention. As the square area presented by dashed lines illustrated in FIG. 3, the upper wall 105 of the toy brick 100 in the embodiment includes two first holding elements 107 formed simultaneously with the forming of the superstructure of the toy brick 100. In this embodiment, the two first holding elements 107 are arranged with identical distances d₁, and each of the first holding element 107 is composed of four fins 113. The four fins 113 are arranged symmetrically with crossing pairs aligned on the diagonals of the square area represented by dashed lines of the first holding element 107. The near ends of fins 113 are arranged with the identical distances d₂, and the far ends of fins 113 are pointed to the four corners around the upper wall 105, respectively. It should be noticed that the above-mentioned arrangements of the two first holding elements 107 are just for illustration. In other embodiments, there may be two or more first holding element 107 set on the single toy brick 100, and the first holding element 107 can be arranged in array but not single row or column to increase the variety of the combinative modes of the toy bricks. The configuration of the bottom portion of the toy brick, as shown in FIG. 3 b, includes the second holding element 109 and the third holding element 111 within the hollow space of the box-shaped portion 101. In the present invention, the number of the second holding element 109 is identical to the number of the first holding element 107 formed on the upper wall 105. For example, FIG. 3 a shows two first holding elements 113 formed on the toy brick 100, so that the bottom portion of the toy brick also includes two corresponding second holding elements 109. Therefore, the more the number of the first holding elements 113, the more the number of the second holding elements of 109. Further, the position of the second holding element 109 is also corresponding to the position of the first holding element 113. For regular geometric combination, both the holding elements are matched with the same center point (i.e., the center point of the square area represented by dashed lines). In the present invention, the second holding elements 109 are composed of four arch protruding pins 115. As illustrated, the arch protruding pins 115 are arranged in the four directions of up, down, left, and right, and each of the arch protruding pins 115 faces one of the inner walls around the box-shaped portion 101. Each of the distance between the arch protruding pins 115 and the nearest inner walls is d₃, and the distance approximates the width of the fins 113 of the first holding element 107 according to this embodiment for appropriate effect of frictional holding. Furthermore, the distance d₄ between every two neighbor protruding pins 115 has to be greater than the width of fins 113 for receiving the fins 113 without shifting. In addition, the third holding elements 111 are arranged between the two second holding means. As showed in FIG. 3 b, the third holding elements 111 are set on the mid-line of the side walls of the box-shaped portion 101, and the second holding elements 109 are symmetrically arranged on the both sides. In the present invention, the third holding elements 111 are composed of two curved holding pins 117. As illustrated, the curved holding pins 117 are arranged in pair, and they face the two longer side walls of the box-shaped portion 101, respectively. In this embodiment, the width of holding pin 117 approximates the distance d_(o) between the two neighboring fins 113 of the first holding element 107 illustrated in FIG. 3 a for appropriate frictional holding. The distance d₅ between the holding pins 117 and the nearest inner walls approximates to the width of fins 113 of the first holding element 107 for the appropriate frictional holding. The novel holding element set on the toy brick 100, including the first, the second, and the third holding element 107, 109, and 111, can carry out more amounts of combinative modes between the toy bricks than the amount prior art can provide. The details of the embodiments will be described bellow.

FIG. 4 a-4 d illustrate the various combinative modes of the toy bricks with the angle of ninety degree according to the embodiment of the present invention. The structure design of the present invention allows two or more toy bricks to be combined together with the angle of ninety degree. As illustrated in FIG. 4 a, one of the second holding elements 109 on the bottom portion of the toy brick 100 a is utilized to be frictionally held with one of the first holding elements 107 on the upper portion of the toy brick 100 b. Two of the fins 113 a of the illustrated first holding elements 107 are stuck by two corners among the inner walls of the toy brick 100 a, while other two fins 113 b are stuck by the middle parts of the inner walls of the toy brick 100 a. In this exemplary embodiment, the four protruding pins 115 of the second holding element 107 are placed between the two fins 113 and been stuck, so that the toy brick 100 a will not shift up and down after combining In the other embodiment illustrated by FIG. 4 b, the third holding element 111 and part of the second holding element 109 on the bottom of the toy brick 100 a are utilized to be combined with the first holding element 107 on the upper portion toy brick 100 b. As illustrated, the ends of four fins 113 on the upper wall of toy brick 100 b will get stuck with the longer inner side walls of the toy brick 100 a, while the second holding element 109 and the third holding element 111 of the toy brick 100 b will be placed and stuck between the four fins 113 of toy brick 100 a, so that the toy brick 100 a will not shift up and down after combining A further embodiment is illustrated in FIG. 4 c, the third holding element 111 of the toy brick 100 a will be closely jointed with the fins 113. Credited to the joint among the far ends of fins 113 and the inner walls of toy brick 100 a, the toy bricks are combined together and fixed. A still further embodiment is illustrated in FIG. 4 d, the far ends of the fins 113 are stuck with the third holding element 111 of the toy brick 100 a, and the toy brick 100 a is fixed.

The foregoing FIG. 4 a-4 d illustrate various combinative modes of two toy bricks with the angle of ninety degree, and the following FIG. 5 a-5 d illustrate embodiment of the various combinative modes of two toy bricks with the angle of forty-five degree. FIG. 5 a illustrates the combination between toy brick 100 a and toy brick 100 b via the frictional holding between inner walls and two protruding pins of toy brick 100 a and two fins 113 a of toy brick 100 b, and the fixing effect is provided by the joint of outer walls of toy brick 100 a and the two fins 113 b of toy brick 100 b. In FIG. 5 b, the frictional holding is generated between the inner walls, protruding pins 115, and a holding pin 117 of the toy brick 100 a and the fins 113 a of the toy brick 100 b, and the fixing effect is provided by the joint of outer walls of toy brick 100 a and a fin 113 b of toy brick 100 b. In FIG. 5 c, the frictional holding is generated between the inner walls and two holding pins 117 of the toy brick 100 a and the two fins 113 a of the toy brick 100 b, respectively, and the fixing effect is provided by the insertion of the other two fins 113 b of the toy brick 100 b into the two second holding elements 109 of the toy brick 100 a. In FIG. 5 d, the holding is generated between the three fins 113 a of the toy brick 100 b and the side walls, holding pins 117, and second holding element 109 of the toy brick 100 a, while another fin 113 b is inserted into the second holding elements 109 of the toy brick 100 a. The illustrations of the embodiment in FIG. 5 a-5 d describe the combinative modes of the toy bricks of the present invention with the angle of forty-five degree. The combination of the toy bricks provided by the present invention includes further combinative modes and appearances which can not be achieved by the prior arts, since the toy bricks of the present invention own the novel second holding element 109 and the third holding element 111.

The above-mentioned design of toy bricks allows the toy bricks of the present invention to be combined together with the identical ones and be combined together with the toy bricks provided by prior arts, and the application is widely broadened. FIGS. 6 a and 6 b illustrates the schematic diagrams of the combination between the toy bricks 116 of the present invention and the conventional toy brick 118 with the angle of ninety degree. As illustrated, there are eight round tenons 120 formed on the upper portion of the conventional toy brick 118, and these tenons 120 are arranged in arrays with the identical distance d₆. Combined with the angle of ninety degree as illustrated in FIG. 6 a, the protruding pins 115 of the second holding element 109 on the bottom of the toy brick 116 of the present invention will be inserted into the two tenons 120, and the effect of frictional holding is achieved. The width of the protruding pin 115 approximates to the distance d₆ between tenons 120. For better effect of fixing, blades 122 can be formed on the corner of the inner side walls of the toy brick 116. One end of the tenon 120 of the toy brick 118 is intended to be stuck by the two protruding pins, and the other end of the tenon 120 is stuck by a blade 122. Via the holding provided among the tenons 120, protruding pins 115, and blades 122, the toy brick 116 of the present invention can be combined with the conventional toy brick 118 with any orthogonal angels (including vertical and horizontal directions). FIG. 6 b illustrates another combinative mode of the present invention. In this embodiment, the effect of fixing is achieved by the holding between the toy brick 116 and the two tenons 120.

In other embodiments, there are other various elements can be formed on the surface in addition to the first holding element 107 for providing other various combinative modes. As illustrated in FIG. 7 a, it illustrates the exemplary embodiment of the lateral combination of two toy bricks 100 a and 100 b via their slots and tenon joints. As illustrated, there are two slots 119 formed on the two longer side walls of both the toy bricks 100 a and 100 b, and the slots 119 cross through the longer side wall 103 a for connecting with the slot (not shown) on the other longer side wall. In this embodiment, the tenon joint 121 is a cylindrical component with the flanges 121 b on the two ends and the mid-position, and its length is the sum of the width of toy brick 100 a and 100 b. When inserting the tenon joints 121 into the corresponding slots 119 on the two toy bricks, the flanges 121 b on the tenon joints 121 are engaged with the grooves on the slots 119 of the toy bricks for fixing. As illustrated in the right part of FIG. 7 a, the longer side walls of the toy bricks will contact with each other, and the end walls 103 a are arranged in alignment with each other. The plurality of toy bricks can be lateral combined via the design of the tenon joints 121 and slots 119 for providing more combinative modes. In other embodiments, the tenons 124 and slots (not shown) can be further formed on the longer side walls of the toy bricks 100 a and 100 b for combination. Via the engagement of the tenons and slots of the two toy bricks, the toy bricks can be lateral combined without above-mentioned additional tenon joints 121.

Further, other slots can also be formed on the upper walls of the toy bricks for further combinative modes. As illustrated in FIG. 7 c, there is a slot 123 formed between the two first holding elements 107 of the toy brick. Being similar to slot 119, there are also grooves formed of the slot 123 for engaging with other tenon joints. As illustrated in FIG. 7 c, a flag type insert 125 is inserted into the slot 123 for engagement, and thus further combinative modes are provided via the design on the upper portion of the toy brick. The insert 125 can be implemented as any type of accessories of toy bricks such as flag, number, and/or holder type accessories or appearances for providing more combinative modes.

The detailed description of the present invention is not for the purpose of limit. Within the spirit and the scope of the present invention, several modification and variation related to the description and illustration of the specification can be allowed. And thus, the scope of the present invention is intended to be defined by the following claims and the equivalents with the possible modification and variation. 

1. A toy brick structure including a box-shaped portion, wherein said box-shaped portion includes four side walls and an upper wall, and at least one first holding element formed on said upper wall with identical separate distances; each of said first holding element including four fins arranged symmetrically with crossing pairs, and separate distances between ends of said fins being identical at crossing position; each of said fins points to each of corners being around said upper wall; bottom portion of said box-shaped portion including a hollow open space with second holding element and third holding element formed therein; said second holding element including four protruding pins arranged with cross pattern, and number and position of said second holding element being corresponding to said first holding element formed on said upper wall; each said third holding element including two holding pins and being positioned between every two second holding element.
 2. The toy brick structure of claim 1, further comprising blades formed on four corners around inner side walls of said toy brick structure for holding said protruding pins of said second holding elements.
 3. The toy brick structure of claim 1, wherein said separate distances approximate to twice as side wall thickness of said box-shaped portion.
 4. The toy brick structure of claim 1, wherein separate distances between said protruding pins and inner walls of said box-shaped portion approximate to width of fins of said first holding elements.
 5. The toy brick structure of claim 1, wherein separate distances between said holding pins of said third holding element and neighboring inner side walls of said box-shaped portion approximate to width of fins of said first holding elements.
 6. The toy brick structure of claim 1, wherein ends of fins of said first holding element are frictional jointed with four corners around inner side walls of said box-shaped portion.
 7. The toy brick structure of claim 1, wherein ends of fins of said first holding element or middle parts of said first holding element are frictional jointed with inner walls or outer walls of said box-shaped portion.
 8. The toy brick structure of claim 1, wherein said protruding pins of said holding element are frictional jointed with ends of fins or side walls of said first holding elements.
 9. The toy brick structure of claim 1, wherein said holding pins of said third holding element are frictional jointed with ends of fins or side walls of said first holding elements.
 10. The toy brick structure of claim 1, wherein a plurality of said toy brick structures can be combined together with the angle of forty-five degree.
 11. The toy brick structure of claim 1, wherein two of said toy brick structures can be combined together via said first holding element formed on their upper walls
 12. The toy brick structure of claim 1, further comprising slots formed on side walls of said box-shaped portion for lateral combination between a plurality of said toy brick structures via joint of said slots and corresponding tenon joints.
 13. The toy brick structure of claim 1, further comprising tenons and grooves formed on side walls of said box-shaped portion, and a plurality of said toy bricks can be lateral combined together via the joint of said tenons and said grooves.
 14. The toy brick structure of claim 1, further comprising slots formed on upper wall of said box-shaped portion for inserting by components of other toy bricks. 